1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to personal emergency communications systems and more particularly to personal emergency communications systems which incorporate distributed input/output devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical personal emergency communications systems (PERS) employ a portable alarm unit worn by a subscriber. The alarm unit, when actuated by the subscriber, transmits an alarm signal to a fixed base station located within the subscriber's residence. When the base station receives the alarm signal, the home base system transmits an alert signal via a telephonic communication link to a central monitoring system. The operator at the central monitoring system attempts to verify the alert via two-way voice communications with the subscriber via the central monitoring system and the home base station, which has a hardwire speaker phone capability. Depending upon information or lack thereof received by the operator from the subscriber, directions may then be issued by the operator to dispatch aid to the residence from which the alert signal was received. PERS of this type have proven to be a reasonably effective tool for responding to the needs of elderly and/or infirm persons confined to their residences.
Accidents in homes may be classified into emergency accidents and non-emergency accidents. Some individuals living alone may require assistance, because of dizziness or illness, to simply rise up from a collapsed state in order to reach a telephone to obtain assistance. Such incidents while requiring assistance, may not be of an emergency nature requiring “emergency” response from EMS personnel. Alternatively, there are serious events which are true emergencies.
Each year many false alarms are generated by PERS for non-emergency types of events. On the other hand, persons involved in serious accidents having PERS in their residences have been found to have waited helplessly for hours, if not days before discovery. Persons who have encountered such serious accidents in many cases simply were unable to communicate their needs because the alarm reception capability or the speaker phone capability of the PERS was not within range of the subscriber. Both false alarms could be reduced and serious accidents could be more properly responded to if plural equivalents of the base station could be located in the residence.
Thus, it is desirable to enhance the performance of known personal emergency response systems to: (1) have the capability of reliably receiving alarms from all areas within a living space, including out-buildings and external areas and (2) have the capability of providing voice communication with the subscriber following an alarm, regardless of the location of the subscriber within the living space.